Nimh

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Nimh was born as Aislin to 2 loners, in a litter of 4. Her early months were spent playing with her siblings, frolicking and learning from their parents. She was always the strongest of the litter, something she enjoyed teasing her only brother about. Nimh was always the most adventurous of the 4, and was the hardest for her parents to convince to stay away from other wolves. Thankfully for them, she was easily distracted by promises of rough-housing and learning how to fight.

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As she grew Nimh threw herself into the training offered by her parents. She had little patience for sitting still and listening but she excelled at practical tasks, particularly hunting and fighting. Her mother's pathfinding skills were something she paid little mind to, far too much listening to talking for her liking, although her father's herb lessons were interesting. Not so much for the helpful applications they had but more because she liked hearing how the various poisonous plants could reduce a wolf to a writhing wreck, or a corpse. Whenever their parents left on hunts Nimh was the first to suggest play fights, and if neither of her siblings would indulge her she practiced on an unfortunate log.

As they grew Nimh became suspicious of her parent's reasoning behind keeping away from other wolves, but strangers weren't of much interest to her, she would have been perfectly content with things staying as they had always been and became frustrated with her sister Samhradh's insistance on finding friends from nearby packs or other lone wolves. She wasn't much more tolerant of their brother, who had grown lazy and complacent, more than happy to become a wolf shaped rock laying about the den area waiting for their parents to bring food back to him.

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Not long after she and her siblings grew into young adults their parents left, supposedly to go hunting, but they never returned. She and her siblings waited for them, but after a short while she became restless. It was clear to her that their parents were not going to come back, she assumed they'd probably been killed or taken by some pack, something her sister found more upsetting than she did. Nimh was the first to schedule the siblings for turns hunting, frequently physically chasing their brother off to go do his part, and was the first to begin the search for their parents.
She didn't want to, she saw no point in it, if they had wanted to come back they would have, but she couldn't stand the whining of her siblings.

Predictably, none of them found any trace of their missing parents. The subject became a heated topic between the 3 of them, disagreement spilling into arguing which erupted into fights on occasion. Nimh was the first of the 3 to leave, once it became too much of an irritation staying behind. Her brother didn't seem to care, but her sister tried convincing her to stay, going on about hope and other such nonsense. It was stupid. Their parents clearly weren't coming back, nor were they anywhere close by, otherwise they would have picked up a trail or a scent. If Nimh wanted to find them, she'd have to go looking on her own, and that's exactly what she did.
There was no real clues as to where they could have gone, so Nimh chose to set off in the direction their parents had left and just keep going from there. She wandered for weeks, ending up South of the Domain, before her nose caught a familiar scent - her parents. She tracked them into the territory of a large pack, watching from the shadows until the pair stole away from the main number of the pack and she could confront them.
Any fantasy notions she may have had about a happy reunion were dashed upon meeting them again - Her parents looked horrified to see her. During the ensuing argument they confessed that they were forbidden from being mates within their pack, and had run off to have their litter in secret before returning, which was why they'd always told their pups to avoid strangers - in fear it could be someone from their pack. They had no intention of ever returning for their children, assuming they'd taught them well enough to survive on their own. Nimh felt betrayed. She cursed at them as she left, hoping they would never find peace knowing what they'd done, and caring little for what happened to them henceforth.

Nimh returned to the Domain almost automatically. It was the only land she'd ever known, and she had no desire to remain close to her traitorous parents or their accursed pack. It was during her aimless wandering that she strayed a bit too close to the swampy territory of Vektren - she didn't know their name, and barely noticed the land had been changed in her abscence - but the eyes of Vektren don't miss anything, least of all a stranger, and she attracted the attention of one of their Shades. Being so young and so obviously lost, she was invited to meet the stranger and one of their superiors at the border of their territory. Nimh wasn't sure about them, but she had nothing to lose and nowhere else to go, so she met this mysterious superior and was invited into their pack.
If she says she wasn't scared when she first arrived she's lying. The swamp felt oppressive at first, and she could never shake the feeling of being watched at all times, but her potential new family were welcoming... in their own way. She was taught about their customs and culture, and educated about the truth of the Dread Father and the Shadow Mother. Her initial skepticism was washed away easily enough, being so engrossed in everything within the heart of Vektren hammered the lessons into her. Nimh completed her Initiation with enthusiasm, happy to have finally found a place in the world that she belonged in.

Her impatience would be her undoing however. While she fully embraced Vektren and everything they stood for, she was the same over-eager and over-confident child she had always been, and she thirsted for proving herself. She led her own secret little mission - to kill someone and bring their heart back to the Reliquary, where she would be cheered as a mighty member of the pack. This was not the case. She should have known better - this wasn't how you prove yourself - but she was foolish.
She found the trail of a band of wolves and followed it eagerly, before launching her attack. She was clumsy and ill-prepared, the group was far too strong together for her to take on alone and she didn't manage to kill anyone in the midst of the bloody skirmish. Her face was savaged in their attempt to subdue her, tearing part of her upper lip clean off and mangling her left ear, leaving her face scarred and disfigured under the blood.
The group was more merciful than she would have been, leaving her to her fate as she lay panting heavily in the dirt, where a shadow silently approached her after they'd long gone - one of her Brothers. Come to scold her. Make sure she knew how foolish she had truly been and dragging her weak, pitiful form back to Vektren.
She didn't plead for mercy. She didn't beg for her life. All she did was snarl and spit blood as she yelled out her true intention behind her action.
The display earned her her life, but not without punishment. An insult to the Gods must be answered, and Nimh was thrust into the merciless reeducation pit to answer them directly.

Nimh spent weeks howling and yelling. Then further weeks snarling and growling at nothing. Then she fell silent. She didn't utter a word, didn't make a whine or whimper. She received her food on instinct when it was thrown to her, before retreating back into silence.
Another wolf was thrown to the pit while she was there, a Brother, who she ignored and stayed away from. It wasn't difficult in the depths of the darkness. She left him to his own torment, not even voicing her displeasure at his interruption of her silence. Eventually he too would fall quiet, only ever whispering to the voices that plagued him.
Nimh did not hear the same voices, though she didn't doubt them. No. Nimh heard deafening nothingness. The only thing she ever heard in the dim quiet was the breath of the Mother, constantly hovering over her, reminding her of her place. A place she learnt, the only time she had ever sat and listened to any lesson without taking action.
This she knew now. This is who she became when she was finally released from the pit. Nimh. No longer Aislin, daughter of two traitors to their pack, but the wraith who was reborn to the shadow and who used the lessons of her previous life to serve her new one.
Nimh, named for the poison she would feed the enemies her true family would set her upon.